Archer wrote that he preferred the option of "a short, sharp shock rather than a longer-term experience with repeated hospital visits".

He explained: "The other major difference between operation or radiotherapy is the effect it may have on your sex life. If you have the operation, you will become infertile.

"So if you still want children (not a problem for me at the age of 74), you will have to opt for radiotherapy. You may also become impotent, though with the help of Viagra you can still experience the same sensation."

Archer detailed his four-hour operation, which left him dealing with temporary incontinence.

"For a week I had been peeing happily away, like a child, not giving a great deal of thought to it, so the brain and body had already accommodated themselves to a new routine, which they were quite happy to continue without consulting me," he added.

"For the next seven days, you become a baby again and need to wear a large nappy to make sure that if you can't get to the loo in time you won't water the carpet and everything else on the way.

"And just like a child, you have to learn to control yourself. For this you need another specialist, a physiotherapist, who will teach you to do exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor - a part of my anatomy I didn't know existed until then."

The novelist added that he was "proud to support Prostate Cancer UK, because if [he] dies before the age of 88, the diagnosis won't be prostate cancer".